'Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable' : Sakini, in "The Tea House of the August Moon" by John Patrick, (1953)

Friday, July 8, 2016

Former Chilean army chief charged over 1973 killing of activists // Former military official found liable for killing of folk singer Victor Jara

A former
commander-in-chief of the Chilean army has been arrested and charged with
complicity in the killing of 15 leftwing militants at the start of the
country’s military dictatorship in 1973. Retired general Juan
Emilio Cheyre was taken into custody on orders from Judge Mario Carroza, one of
several judges who investigate human rights crimes in Chile. Cheyre, the army’s
commander from 2002-06, has repeatedly denied the charges levelled against him,
including claims last month from two former political prisoners that he had
tortured them. But Cheyre has acknowledged that human rights
abuses occurred during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet. Cristian
Cruz, a lawyer who represents the families of the 15 activists who died,
welcomed the arrest. “My clients are deeply
excited,” he said. “We continue to believe in justice. It is difficult to
understand all that they, and those they were close to, have gone through, so
we are very pleased for what has happened here in the light of hope.”

The case is one of
several linked to what Chileans call the “Caravan of Death” – a group of
military officers that moved around the country holding summary trials of
dissidents under orders from Pinochet. Judicial investigations conducted after
the return of democracy have said the group left behind a trail of dead and
“disappeared”. The inquiries
established that many prisoners held by the military were taken into the desert
where they were stabbed or shot to death and their bodies blown up with
dynamite. At least 3,095 people
were killed during Pinochet’s rule, according to government figures, and tens
of thousands more were tortured or jailed for political reasons. Pinochet died
in 2006 under house arrest without being tried on charges of illegal enrichment
and human rights violations.

In Chile, a fascist junta in 2 years, wiped out 30,000 of the population, imprisoned another
200,000 and left 22,000 widows and 66,000 orphans...the operation under the
management of Augusto
Pinochet, was fired off by a collective comprising the CIA, the
State Dept & American business interests.

A Florida jury on
Monday found a former Chilean army officer liable for the 1973 torture and
murder of the folk singer and political activist Victor Jara, awarding $28m in
damages to his widow and daughters in one of the biggest and most significant
legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom. The verdict against
Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez after a two-week civil trial in Orlando’s federal
court could now also pave the way for his extradition to face criminal murder
charges in Chile related
to his conduct during a CIA-backed coup that led to Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year
military dictatorship and the deaths of almost 3,100 people.

Accusers said
Barrientos, 67, who now lives in Deltona, Florida, shot dead Jara, 40, in
September 1973 after three days of beatings while the socialist-leaning theatre
director and university lecturer was among thousands of suspected communists
and subversives detained in Santiago’s soccer stadium. Barrientos, who fled
Chile in 1989 and became a US citizen through marriage, was one of nine retired
army officers indicted for murder in his homeland four years ago but the US
Department of Justice has not responded to a request by the Chilean government
for his return.

Kathy Roberts, legal
director of the Center for Justice and Accountability, the California-based
human rights group that brought the civil action on behalf of Jara’s
British-born widow, Joan Turner Jara, and daughters Amanda Turner Jara and
Manuela Bunster, believes the Florida jury’s ruling could now increase the
pressure on the DoJ. “It’s a step on the
path towards justice for our clients and for Victor but also for the many other
families who lost someone at Chile Stadium so many years ago,” she said after
the verdict. “We presented evidence
that started to shed light on what happened there, and we hope that process
will continue in Chile and we hope that the United States will extradite Mr
Barrientos to face justice in the country where he committed these crimes.”

Joan Jara Turner, 88,
testified during the trial that her husband’s death in a stadium locker room
had “cut my life in two”, and has previously spoken of the horror of having to
identify his tortured and mutilated body in a morgue after he was dumped
outside the stadium with 44 bullet wounds. “[I’m] happy in a
sense that what we were trying to do for more than 40 years, for Victor, has
today come true,” she said through tears on the steps if the Orlando
courthouse.

“It’s the beginning of
justice for all those people, those relatives in Chile who are waiting to learn
the fate of their loved ones, who have been for years and years, just like us,
seeking justice [and] knowledge. “It’s been a long
journey. For Victor, art and social justice were one and the same. His songs
continue to be sung today and inspire both artists and those who seek social
justice.”

Daughter Amanda Turner
Jara, who thanked lawyers from the CJA and pro bono counsel from New York legal
firm Chadbourne & Parke, said it was crucial that Barrientos was
extradited. “He ran away. He’s
been hiding here for so long, and it’s time he faces that now in Chile,” she
said. The jury of five women
and one man deliberated for nine hours before determining that Barrientos, a
Pinochet loyalist who commanded the Chilean army’s notorious Tejas Verde
brigade, should pay $6m in compensatory damages and a further $22m in punitive
damages. The jury found him liable on both counts of the civil indictment, for
torture and extrajudicial killing.

The Jara family,
however, are unlikely to see any payment. Barrientos’ lawyer Luis Calderon
painted a picture during the trial of a poor retiree who lives in a modest
two-bedroom house and drives around in a decade-old car, and who was forced to
work as a cook at a fast-food restaurant for years just to make ends meet. Barrientos, who
remained impassive as the verdicts were read, did not comment afterwards but
Calderon said he was disappointed. “We will explore all our options regarding
an appeal,” he said.

Dixon Osburn,
executive director of the CJA, told the Guardian that one of the biggest
challenges was proving that Barrientos, who also worked for a time as a landscaper
during almost three decades in the US, was the same violent army officer who
beat, tortured and shot Jara. “These cases are
always difficult because a lot of time has passed and because of the silence
that has encased this matter for so long,” he said. “Trying to break through
that silence and lift the veil on what happened in those days was enormously
difficult. “One of the things the
Jara family has been pursuing for 43 years is just the truth. Barrientos said
in deposition he knew nothing of Chile Stadium, he knew nothing of Victor Jara,
but we had conscript after conscript saying he was there and he was responsible
for what took place.”

One of the conscripts,
Jose Navarette Barra, said during the trial in video testimony from Chile that
Barrientos boasted of what he had done. “He said many times that he killed
Victor Jara,” Barra said. “He talked about killing a communist, and he didn’t
want a communist in Chile.” The ruling marks the
latest victory in the CJA’s pursuit
of overseas war criminals and human rights abusers living in Florida. In
August 2015, El Salvador’s former defence minister Carlos Eugenio Vides
Casanova was extradited to El Salvador after a lengthy legal battle. Vides, an
army general in the country during the bloody civil war in the 1980s, was
accused of covering up a number of atrocities, including the rape and murder of
four American churchwomen.